


birth of a legacy

by chromyrose



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cuddling and Snuggling, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Platonic Kissing, Platonic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-30
Updated: 2012-04-30
Packaged: 2017-11-04 14:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/395001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chromyrose/pseuds/chromyrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once Rose is starting to get used to the prophetic nightmares, she has one that topples her whole idea of her life upside-down; fortunately, she has a knight in shining pajamas waiting to take the hurts away. [alpha!verse, Rose and Dave find out they're going to be parents.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	birth of a legacy

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first try with these characters, and I'm not sure I managed to say what I hoped to, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless :) This is inspired by the 4/28 update.

When Rose Lalonde awoke with a start, clinging to her bedsheets like a frightened child, she stared in the dark at her ceiling as she felt her pulse slip back down to something more human. Against the blackness of her room she could still see the phantom images of them burn behind her eyes. She blinked, and finally reoriented she pushed the covers off and unstuck her hair from her pillow. The hardwood was cold beneath her bare toes and she skittered out of the room, moving mindlessly to the one next door.

In their entire time of knowing one another, Rose had always known Dave to sleep like the dead; but, when a floorboard creaked beneath her foot as she stepped into his room, and a single red eye flashed in the midnight black, she was unsurprised. A chord of pity struck deep inside her chest, as she realized how much paranoia was in him, paranoia he never spoke of but couldn’t hide in his sleep. 

By the time she’d reached his bed, Dave had rearranged his body to save space (not just light sleep, but also apparently fitful, now), and the comforter was pulled back. The mussed sheets were inviting, and Rose slid in beside him. Dave dropped the comforter over them both and nestled back against the mattress. 

Rose felt Dave’s gaze on her, sleepy; when his palm found her arm under the thick blanket and started to stroke her skin, rough calluses against tender, warm flesh. She looked up at his touch, and when she found herself faced with his molten gaze, her resolve broke. 

“Rose.”

She clung to the wife-beater he slept in, her nose buried in his chest; her chest shook against his with sobs. Dave dutifully held back, his large hands braced low against her back, holding her in her place. Rose sobbed soundlessly, as she had since they were children, but the wetness of her thick tears permeated his shirt. Dave let her to her devices, his hands rubbing in a way that was meant to be comforting; he really had no idea how successful it was. He peppered soft platonic kisses on the crown of her head, soaking in the lavender and sweat smell of her hair, until her chest stopped convulsing against his heart. 

“What did you see this time?” 

Rose wanted to smile with the way Dave cut to the chase, his voice thick with sleepiness and worry, so much worry that was all for her. She wanted to comfort him and remind him that this was her portion of the burden to bear. But, her head ached with the effort of all the crying, and her body ached with all the effort of living. Her hold on his thin shirt straps loosened, but she threw her arm around him and held tight.

“Rose, come on, please. Talk to me. How bad was it?”

He reached in the space between them, and smoothed her mussed bangs away from her face, pressing a hand against her forehead; that gesture kept her from sobbing again as she managed, 

“Babies.”

She felt Dave still against her, and could imagine perfectly the look on his face as he tried to understand.

“She’s gonna go after fucking babies? What’s she gonna do, bomb an orphanage? Or use her Jedi-mind powers to create a toddler army? Hell, I don’t think I’d be able to fight that.”

“No,” Rose scoffed softly, speaking into him. “Ours.”

Dave paused, and then gently pulled himself away from her in order to gape.

“You’re going to have to run that by me again.”

“A boy and a girl,” Rose started, her eyes shut to call up the images of them again. “He’s striking, headstrong, stoic, like you. And she… she’s too thin.”

Dave rolled his eyes at her when she looked up at him.

“I bet you’re underestimating her. She’s probably a real knockout, if she’s anything like her mom.”

“Flatterer,” Rose murmured, shaking her head. She shifted up on the bed and placed her head on the cool pillow Dave left for her. His hand shifted to her hip, and he absently rubbed circles against her leg in the thin nightgown. 

“Not that I need it to get you, but I figure I should throw the dog a bone every now and then.”

“Did you just insinuate that I am a bitch, David Strider?” 

Dave shooshed her and leaned in. “If this time it was just about our kids, why’d you come in here boohooing? Unless the thought of bearing the Strider progeny makes you emotional, which I understand.”

Rose smacked his arm, and then sighed. She reached up and touched Dave’s jaw gently, before looking away.

“I saw them sitting at our graves. Makeshift ones, I think, but… he was talking to you, and she was talking to me, and all the things they were saying, Dave. Dave. We’re going to die before we can see them. They’re going to grow up all alone, without… us.”

She buried her face in his neck, and he started petting her hair. 

“Fuck,” he murmured. “Rose, it’s alright. Don’t cry.”

“We’re going to fail them, Dave. It was one thing when we thought we were going down fighting with nothing to lose, but now. Now, we have something precious to fight for, and we won’t even be strong enough to hold onto them.”

Dave sighed through his teeth, and long and slow and heavy; then he tucked his fingers under Rose’s chin and tilted her head up. 

“No. Now we have a reason to fight back harder. We’re going to make plenty fucking sure that when the time comes they can finish what we started.”

Rose didn’t say a word for a while after that, a while that Dave knew was only about 47 seconds, but in the darkness of their room and with the way their bodies were melded together, it felt like a small eternity.

“I don’t think you would be too horrible of a person to raise a little boy and little girl with,” she murmured, laying on her pillow again to look at him properly, mere millimeters between their noses. “You’d be a good father.”

“If I had to father spawn with any lady, I’d pick you, too,” Dave half smiled. “Did your dream tell you what their names are?”

“Dirk Strider, and Roxy Lalonde.”

“Dirk,” Dave repeated, as if testing its weight on his tongue. Rose watched him murmur it to himself again, and then he smirked. “I guess that one’s a compromise; I would’ve named him Dick.”

“Creative,” Rose retorted, “I’m glad you didn’t have free reign, or my daughter might be Titiana.”

Dave laughed softly, “Kitten. Because I bet she’s got a sweet pussy.”

“She’s your daughter!” Rose slapped his bicep, and Dave only laughed again.

“Roxy’s a good name. It’s classy but it’s got some sass.” 

Rose hummed in agreement, and then they fell silent again. In the darkness, under the comforter, Rose found Dave’s hand and removed it from her leg, clasping it in hers instead.

“We’ll give her hell,” she spoke firmly, and Dave leaned in and pressed their lips together.

“Damn fucking right. We’ll wreck her shit.”

They shifted in the bed so that they were spooning, noses brushing up against each other, breasts pressed into a hard abdomen, and their legs all twisted up together. Rose kissed him softly, and let her eyes flutter shut.

And maybe she was going to allow herself to believe that things would be okay.


End file.
